[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE I5
practice of head deformation by means of which the heads of the
men are artiï¬Åcially lengthened‘ To this region also is restrictcd
the custom of making an eï¬Åigy or rambammp for a dead man,
the head being formed from his skull, oi keeping this in the
men's club-house and oi treating it as in some degree sacred.
The Nevinbur rites are also conï¬Åned to these southern districts,
and it may be indeed that they are celebrated only in Seniang,
Wilemp, and Nahate in the west and at Port Sandwich in the
east. We can in fact subdivide the mat-skirt area roughly into
some four regions: the Big Nambas territory; the east coast
and the Small Islands (which include Rano, Wale, Atchin,
Vao, etc.) ; the south coast, including the Maskelynes, Tomman
Island, and the other small islets which lie off it ; and the north-
west, comprising Lamburnhu, Laravat, and Lagalag. It must
be appreciated too, that although we may accept the division
into mat-skirt and fringe-skirt areas, yet there is in tact a con-
siderable degree of overlapping of culture traits between them.
Thus the cycas as a tabu mark appears in Mewun and the north~
west, though it is, seemingly, absent from Scniang ; the custom
oi signalling by means of gong rhythms is highly developed in
the south (except perhaps in tho south-east) and in Mewun, but
is little used save for ceremonial occasions in the north, and
north-west or along the east coast. Again, Mcwun is closely
unit‘ed"with the south-west in its myths concerning certain
beings called Kabat, who appear as Ambat in Seniang, and,
through these same beings and the ritual of '_' Making Man â€ù,
it*’>is1also' lihked with Lambumbu. Another cultural feature
<‘:~‘f"eo11sitierable'i’ntcrest which links the mat-skirt and {ringe-
slthis‘the"na'tives of south and central Malekula are differentiated
from tliose living in the " head " of the island—including the
Big"N'ambas-—in Lagalag and in tho small islands lying oft the
north-east coastl - For in the latter region the system is a decimal
one, whereas throughout the remainder of the island there is
a- quinary system. In this respect North Malckula is allied to
Qmba, Malo, and North-West Santo, While the centre and south
resemble South Raga, Ambrym, and North Epi.
‘ The signiï¬Åcance of the distribution of these diverse cultural
elements, and the light which they may throw upon the cultural